Mexican Chocolate Cake (October, 2003) 1 and 1/4 cup ground Ibarra cholocate 1/2 cup flour 4 eggs 3/4 cup sugar, divided (1/2 cup and 1/4 cup) 1/4 cup canola oil 1/2 teaspoon vinegar 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Grease the sides of a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with baker's parchment. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, grind the Ibarra chocolate until very, very fine. Stir the ground-chocolate mixture together with the flour and set aside. Separate the eggs into yolks and whites. Put the whites in the work bowl of an electric mixer and the yolks in a large separate mixing bowl. Whisk the egg yolks (by hand) with 1/2 cup of sugar and the vanilla until light and fluffy, then whisk in the oil and set aside. Beat the egg whites (with the electric mixer - this will take a while) with the vinegar and salt until the whites hold stiff peaks. With the mixer still running, stream in the rest of the sugar and continue beating for a few seconds to dissolve the sugar. "Stiff peaks" means that when you lift the beaters out of the bowl, the little mountains left behind in the whites have sharp, defined tops. If the tops curl over like a Dairy Queen ice cream cone, keep beating the whites. This may take 10 minutes or more. Fold one third of the egg whites and half the ground chocolate mixture into the bowl with the yolks. Fold in another third of the whites with the remaining chocolate mixture, then fold in the last third of the whites to make a light, fluffy batter. "Folding" means that you place the whites and chocolate in the center of the yolks and go around the outer edge of the bowl, scooping the edge of the yolk mixture up and onto the top of the center with a rubber spatula. Don't stir, just keep turning in the edges over the center. You don't want to mix up the eggs any more than they already are so be gentle and go slowly. Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan and bake for 30 minutes or just until the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Turn the cooled cake upside down onto a larger pan or directly onto a serving platter and peel away the baker's parchment. Coat the cake with chocolate glaze, let it set up a few minutes, then pipe the powdered sugar glaze over the chocolate glaze in a cobweb pattern. For the chocolate glaze: 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 2 Tablespoons canola oil Put the chocolate chips and the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool and thicken. For the powdered sugar glaze: 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1 Tablespoons Bailey's Irish cream (or use half-n-half for a non-acoholic glaze) Put the powdered sugar and cream/half-n-half in a small bowl an stir until smooth. If the glaze seems pasty, add a little more cream/half-n-half. If the glaze seems runny, add a bit more sugar. The glaze should be soft enough to flow steadily in a thick stream from the spoon, but not too runny. Put the glaze in a ziploc bag and cut a tiny piece of the bottom corner of the bag off to make a hole. Then you can squeeze the bag to "write" on the cake. The cake keeps just fine in the fridge for a day or two, getting denser and denser kind of like brownies do. Feeds 12 normal people or 6 hungry Dillingers. Back |